Cemetery Details

LE PETIT LAC CEMETERY

Location Information

Le Petit Lac Cemetery is situated on the south-eastern outskirts of Oran, approcimately 4 kilometres from the Place Foch, in the centre of the town.

The entrance is on the Avenue de Sidi Chami, where the road forks right to Le Petit Lac. The Commonwealth war plot lies approximately 180 metres from the entrance, on the right of the main path.

Visiting Information

The cemetery register and visitors' book are kept in the gatehouse by the entrance gates.

Before considering a visit to Algeria the Commission strongly recommends that you check the advice given by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office on the travel section of their website:

www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/

For further information and enquiries please contact maoffice@cwgc.org

Historical Information

Allied troops made a series of landings on the Algerian coast in early November 1942. From there, they swept east into Tunisia, where the North African campaign came to an end in May 1943 with the surrender of the Axis forces.

The assault landings in the harbour at Oran failed, with heavy casualties, but landings east and west of the port were successful.

Le Petit Lac Cemetery contains 200 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 50 of them unidentified, and ten war graves of other nationalities. There are also 14 non-war burials, all of merchant seamen whose deaths were not due to war service.

The cemetery also contains ten First World War burials which were brought here from Oran (Tamashouet) Cemetery in 1959. These include seven casualties of the Lincolnshire Yeomanry, who died as a result of a submarine attack on the transport 'Mercian' in November 1915.